Dean Highland Neighborhood Association

Tag: Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative

  • Our Conservancy Initiative recap for Saturday, May 23rd

    Hi Dean Highlanders,

    Our last neighborhood cleanup before the summer break was a big hit. We didn’t find any guns (this time!), but we did do something different and tackled one of our streets directly instead of relying on the City to maintain the rubbish.

    Ten Dean Highlanders — that’s right, ten – showed up to pitch in this time: Austin from Pine, Tinker from Pine, and the Strietzels from Maple.

    Most of you will know Austin and Tinker thanks to their longtime service as board members of the Dean Highland Neighborhood Association, but the Strietzels are still relatively new so give them all a hearty greeting next time you see them (perhaps at our 6th annual summer meet-and-greet gathering!).

    We hit 27th Street with all we had, and did a good bit of work on it. I know many Dean Highlanders were, and are, grateful for our efforts.

    A conservancy for Dean Highland’s Hillcrest Memorial Park? Run by the neighborhood association? You better believe it, baby!

    Catch you all at Saturday’s (May 30th) sixth annual meet-and-greet gathering in the police station parking lot.

  • Our Conservancy Initiative cleanup (this Saturday, May 23rd) will be…27th Street!

    Hi Dean Highlanders,

    Our bimonthly Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative cleanup will take place along 27th Street this Saturday (May 23rd). We are going to meet on 27th and Cumberland and then go all the way down and all the way up 27th, like so:

    We will meet at 10am on 27th and Cumberland. Just walk there. Ride your bike. Bring the kids. Bring the dogs. Oh, we will also need a pickup truck since our erstwhile president will not be able to be there this Saturday. This will be our last cleanup before we take the long, hot months of June and July off.

    That’s right, Dean Highlanders, we won’t be doing any guerilla-style conservancy initiative cleanups in June or July due to the heat. So be sure to get on out and join us this Saturday for our last cleanup before the Fall!

    Check out our past cleanup efforts.

    If you have any questions, you know what to do!

  • Fundraiser Friday

    Hello Dean Highlanders,

    It’s that time again. Your humble neighborhood association board has been hard at work.

    We’ve been serving others through our bi-monthly Conservancy Initiative cleanups. Will we see you at the next cleanup on May 23rd?

    We’ve been advocating for you. Don’t forget to head on over to the City Council meeting on May 19th (it starts at 6pm) if you’re concerned about the rezoning efforts for the northwest corner of Dean Highland.

    We love fellowshipping with you, too. Will we see you at the 6th Annual Summer Gathering on May 30th? It’ll be at the police station parking lot again.

    We have big plans for the summer and beyond, and we need your financial support as well as your physical and spiritual support. We won’t be paying ourselves a salary with your donations. We’ll be using it to assert a bit more independence from the City of Waco’s amazing grants program. We’ll be using it to further enhance our ongoing projects. We’ll be using it to throw another awesome Holiday Party in December. That’s it.

    Can you donate to the cause this Friday? If so, here’s our Venmo account. Just click on it to get started. There should be a spot for you to tell us why you’re donating this Friday.

    Are you giving because you support our ongoing history projects? Or perhaps you want to donate to the war chest we will need to fight for every acre of Hillcrest Park? Maybe you want to contribute to this years’ wild and wacky Holiday Party?

    If you don’t do Venmo, you can always drop off some cash or a check at our Treasurer’s house. Rick lives at 2925 Maple Ave. He says you can put the much-needed financial support right into his mailbox, without even having to knock on the door!

    Please, we need all the financial support we can get.

    (If you have any questions about taxes and donations to the neighborhood association, please shoot us an email.)

    Thanks, and enjoy your weekends…

  • Happy Mother’s Day: your Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative wrap-up (May 9th)

    Oh boyohboyohboy Dean Highlanders,

    You missed a good one. Let’s start with the pile of garbage we collected and left for our partners (City of Waco Public Works Dept. and Keep Waco Beautiful) at Mitchell Park:

    Our two pocket parks are in good shape now, thanks to our consistent, service-based conservancy initiative.

    Check out the action in our alleyways, too:

    Yes, that’s a real gun. And, yes, it was wrapped in a plastic bag. Jim from Maple and I (Brandon from Wenz) found it in the alleyway off 27th and in between McFerrin and Summer:

    Pro tip: if you find a gun laying around one of Dean Highland’s alleyways, don’t do what Jim and I did and pick it up or examine it or play cowboy with it. Don’t even touch it. Call the Waco Police Department immediately and they’ll dispose of it properly. I ended up taking the gun — even though it had really cool potential to be a neighborhood historical artifact – to the police station:

    Our boys in blue were able to dispose of the gun properly. There’s a never a dull moment when you get out and get involved in your neighborhood!

    Our next conservancy initiative service project will be on May 23rd (a Saturday). Be on the lookup in these pages for more information soon.

    Also, don’t forget that our 6th annual summer gathering meet-and-greet will be happening on May 30th (another Saturday).

    Our Texas Historical Marker for the trolley stop is on-site now. You can check it out at the triangle on Trice and 28th. The State of Texas butchered the rhythm of my writing on the sign, but it’s there and now Dean Highlanders can rest assured knowing that their neighborhood played an important role in the history of Texas. You can also check it out anytime you’d like:

    If you take a photo of yourselves and loved ones next to the Texas Historical Marker, send it to us at deanhighlandwaco@gmail.com and we’ll post it here!

    And for heaven’s sake, reach out to Brandon from Wenz so you can tell your story for the “Voices from Dean Highland” oral history project.

  • Tomorrow’s (May 9th) Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative project

    Hey Dean Highlanders,

    Tomorrow’s conservancy initiative project will be Mother’s Day themed. We’re going to start at 27th and McFerrin and hit the alleyway between McFerrin and Summer, and then make our way over to Wenz Park, then to the home of a single homeowning mother on Wenz Avenue who needs a bit of help clearing out her backyard, and finally to Mitchell Park.

    There is a church (which used to be a grocery store, something I learned while doing the “Voices from Dean Highland” oral history project!) parking lot that you are welcome to park in. Here is a map:

    The alleyway we’ll be cleaning is kinda cool, too. It ends right smack dab in the middle of the block. We’ll be taking it easy on the alleyway, just doing the half-block up through 27th, and then the two blocks from 27th down to 25th:

    The DHNA board will mostly be out of town or working (or both!) this weekend, so I (Brandon Christensen) will need as much help as possible from any Dean Highlanders who can spare a couple of hours tomorrow morning and a pickup truck. The area we are serving for the conservancy initiative tomorrow is a high need, high impact one.

    The fun starts at 10am! Shoot us an email or text Brandon (530-748-7566) if you have any questions or want to help out!

  • The Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative’s April 25 cleanup: A recap

    Hello Dean Highlanders,

    I promise I will get our quarterly meeting minutes posted here (probably on Tuesday), but for now I’ve got a recap of our Conservancy Initiative cleanup that happened earlier today (4/25/26)

    Our latest Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative (DHCI) cleanup was our best-attended one yet! Thanks to everybody who showed up and got sweaty with us.

    We started at 30th Street in the alleyway between Windsor and Live Oak avenues and made our way over to 25th-ish Street, to that empty field where you can get a great view of St. Louis Catholic Church on the other side of 25th Street.

    However, because we had so many Dean Highlanders show up this time (thanks again to Kevin, Candace, Robert, Rick, Skip, Scott, and Katie!), we ended up finishing off the alleyway between Homan and Ethel and tackled a good chunk of the alleyway in between Bosque and Homan:

    Not too shabby, eh? Just imagine if everybody from the Dean Highland Neighborhood Association showed up to the next conservancy initiative event (happening Saturday, May 9th). If you want to learn more about our conservancy initiative, or need a recap, click here. You can always share this link with others who may want to know more about our service-based conservancy initiative, too.

    If you have an alleyway, or a yard or empty lot, in Dean Highland that you think could use a little service, love, and respect, let us know about it here.

  • Quarterly meeting is done, and DON’T FORGET about tomorrow’s (4/25) Conservancy Initiative cleanup

    Well Dean Highlanders,

    Another quarterly meeting at Dean Highland Elementary School is in the books, and it was a real barnburner. We’ll have a recap for you later on, but for now DON’T FORGET about tomorrow’s Conservancy Initiative cleanup.

    Since the Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative’s last cleanup was so massive (thanks, again, to Baylor University, Alpha Epsilon Delta Honor Society, and Sara from Parrott Ave), this Saturday’s cleanup is going to be relatively mellow. Meet us on 30th & Live Oak as we march down the alleyway between Live Oak and Windsor avenues. We’ll end our cleanup in the empty lot on 25th-ish Street that faces St Louis Church on the opposite side of the Dean Highland border. Like so:

    The fun will start at 10am. You can just show up on 30th Street. Walk. Bike. Drive. Bring the kids. Bring the dogs. Bring a neighbor! We anticipate this cleanup to be relatively mild compared to some of our earlier ones, so don’t be shy.

    Oh, and once you’re done doing a good deed for Dean Highland, you should head on over to Unify Waco’s COE at Dewey Park. Unify Waco is part of a citywide anti-violence initiative that features top-notch support from Waco PD. This event, which runs from 10am to 2pm, will have exciting prizes & giveaways, free food & drinks (while supplies last), free haircuts by Champions, interactive games & activities, local vendors & booths, public safety connections & engagement, and (and!) a live DJ & music.

  • Baylor’s “Steppin’ Out Day of Service” and the Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative: A Recap

    Hello Dean Highlanders,

    We had around 60-70 students from Baylor’s Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED) Honor Society show up yesterday (Saturday, April 11th) to help clean up our two pocket parks and a bunch of our alleyways. They did this as part of Baylor’s annual Steppin’ Out Day of Service event.

    We are truly grateful for their help and dedication to service. Because this event was so successful, we will definitely be partnering with them more often this year!

    Check out some photos, beginning with Dean Highland Neighborhood Association’s President, Scott Michael, bagging up some garbage and throwing it onto the back of his pickup truck. What service! What heart!

    Here are some more photos of the fun we had:

    Again we were able to hit both of our pocket parks and dozens of alleyways, which is exactly what the Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative (DHCI) seeks to accomplish as we work toward a world-class park in our empty Hillcrest parking lot. Thanks again to Sara from Parrott Ave for the heads up on this project, and for getting us connected to the folks at Baylor who were able to make this happen on their end.

    Our next service project for the DHCI will be Saturday, April 25th. We hope to see you there, and if you’ve got an alleyway or empty lot that you’d like to nominate for some tender lovin’ care, click here to submit your nomination!

  • The Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative and Baylor’s Steppin’ Out day of action is happening tomorrow!

    The Dean Highland Conservancy Initiative and Baylor’s Steppin’ Out day of action is happening tomorrow!

    Hey Dean Highlanders,

    Your humble neighborhood association board has teamed up with Baylor to clean up some alleyways and green spaces as part of Baylor’s awesome Steppin’ Out program.

    It’s happening tomorrow, April 11th, at 8am, and we’re meeting in Highland Baptist Church’s “red lot,” which is where its new Wellness Center is located.

    Baylor is sending 60-80 students our way to help us with our conservancy initiative. Many, many thanks go to Sara on Parrott Ave for putting this whole thing together.

    We’ll catch you at 8am tomorrow morning, and don’t forget to bring your attitude of gratitude, baby!

  • THANK YOU! Saturday’s cleanup (Mar. 28th) was a big hit

    A big shout-out to three “new” Dean Highlanders (including a little one!) for showing up and helping us get our conservancy initiative off the ground. We hit the empty-grass-field-portion of our future Hillcrest Park site hard, and we got some fellowshipping in, too:

    Our next cleanup will be April 11th. If you’ve got an alleyway you’d like to nominate for a guerilla-style cleanup, just click here and fill out the form!